The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-08-20
EARS.

A writer in Harper's Bazaar says: "a
curioue proposition has been made by
the chief of police Of one of the large
European cities, that photographs OF GRIM
inals should be taken, not with the full
face as now, but with the side face in
view, using the ear especially, other fea-
lures changing with the course OF time
mouth falling, an eye sinking, a nose
projecting, brow growing prominent, a
cheek either baggy or hollow, a chin ell
Their pointed or doubling-but an ear al
ways remains unchanged into old age,
and no two ears being alike; SO that a
thief would be known by his ear as long
as there was anything left of him.
"This would seem to involve singular
error on the part of those who follow such
hasty advice. No organ, any close OBJ
server will declare, changes shape more
than the ear does. Even the piercing OF
the lobe for earrings will often pull it
down and initiate it so as to work COM
plete transformation there; and anybody
who has a equity acquaintance may see
the change wrought in the ears by the
chalky Jumps and concretions under the
skin that never fail to show themselves
there, that sometimes attain the size of
the curious little notch seen in the upper
edge of many ears, and said by those who
have faith in the intricacies of evolution,
to be the remnant of the ancestral ear Of
and last apish progenitor.
"Few features of the human body are
more distinctly beautiful than the ear,
when it is beautiful ear; that is to say
when it is rosy and little, and 80 thin
that the blood glows behind it like a
flame. No sea shell with it's myriad del
icate whorls, with it's pink and white,
with it's polish and brittle daintiness, is
half so lovely, for no sea shell after all is
alive when we see it, or when it has
reached that stage OF beauty. But the
ear in it's perfection has the white throat
beneath it, the clustering hair above it,
the dsmask cheek beside it, and is set
of and heightened in every line and
tint by it's surroundings, and as often as
not has the eye of the beholder fastened
to it on the point OF a quivering jewel
glittering in it. Yet, let the ear be ever
30 small and curly-a bit of transparency
in the young girl-hers will be a very
exceptional case, if, when she has attain
ed the age that makes caps advisable,
she is not glad of the cap to hide large
fiat piece of cartilage on either side OF her
head-not the least dissgreeable of the
disagreeable things that have come to her
as warnings and evidences of the end OF
all things. This is not the case with
every person of course; enough people to
prove the rule retain sufficient shape to
the ear in old age; but by far the greater
number of ears cease to be objects on
which the eye of another cares to linger,
and become objects which make every
contemporary put up his hands to see If
his own ears have turned into flaps OF
elephantine proportions. AS life goes on,
every year uuCurlb tllu obIniSut0uo Ouo
the pretty whorls of most ears, and fat
tens and seems so to enlarge, the upper
and outer edge, perhaps not through
growth, nor even through the daily wip-
ing of the part, SO much as through the
loss of fat in the tissues and the falling
away of the neighboring roundness and
plumpness; the one rendering the cartil-
age smooth, the other making it seem
larger than it is by comparison. In
either event, the ear of the criminal OF
to-day will hardly be the same ear to APP
pearance ten years from to-day will be
q very different ear in twenty years.
The ears of elderly persons tell the
sad tale to any who care to scrutinize
them in sufficient number to generalize
from what is seen, and any one who
chooses may regretfully watch the pro-
cess as time passes, which transforms
one OF the choicest features of physical
charm into one of the ugliest."